BEACHWOOD, Ohio—
Eyetique is expanding beyond the Pittsburgh region with tomorrow’s opening of a new Eyetique location here in the Cleveland metropolitan area. The high-fashion, designer optical group founded in 1979 by Norman Childs is adding its 12th location this weekend, its first outside of the Pittsburgh area. In addition, Childs’ value-focused
3 Guys Optical is also opening another store tomorrow, adding a third Pittsburgh-area location in Mars, Pa.

The new Eyetique location is 1,000 square feet and will have about 1,400 frames on display, Childs told VMail, while the 3 Guys Optical store is 1,400 square feet and will have about 1,600 frames on display. In addition to major brands such as Oliver Peoples, Cartier, Chanel, Ray-Ban, and Robert Marc, the new Eyetique store will also include cabinetry built to display 200 Norman Childs Eyewear frames. “We’ve always had P.O.P. displays and great photo shoots, but we never had a build-out for our brand,” Childs told VMail about the eponymous collection he launched in 1998. “It’s become the number one selling brand for all our Eyetique stores. We need to call it out.”

Childs plans to expand further this year, both organically and through acquisition, with the goal of operating 20 stores by the end of 2014, he told VMail. “We still want to expand in the Pittsburgh region, but we’re also very interested in the Ohio market right now,” he said, alluding to a couple of locations he’s already working on firming up in the Ohio area. “The market we want to go into right now is suburban Cleveland, which has a great demographic for us and is less than two hours away,” he said, referring to the area’s proximity to his company’s headquarters. Childs also noted that although he founded Eyetique in 1979, it’s more than doubled in size in the last three years.